1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to the field of slides and more particularly to an improved release mechanism for telescoping slide assembly.
2. Related Art
Conventionally, a slide is widely employed to enable the relative movement of a drawer and a cabinet, a computer desk and a keyboard shelf, or the like. A conventional slide comprises an outer member and an inner member. For example in the drawer and cabinet configuration, outer member is fixedly attached to the wall of cabinet and inner member is fixedly attached to the side of drawer. Typically, a ball bearing mechanism is employed to interconnect above two members in a rolling relation. Hence, inner member may coaxially move respect to outer member. Thus drawer is permitted to remove to its maximum extension or retract into the cabinet. Conventionally, a stop mechanism such as latch is employed to lock the slide in a fully extended position when the slide reaches its maximum extension. At this time, inner and outer members are held in place by the latch. Hence, drawer supported by inner member is held in this place. Further, it is possible to detach drawer from cabinet by manually manipulating the latch if desired. One such latch based locking mechanism for slide is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,405,195 and 5,961,193. Each of both disclosed a release mechanism situated on the front of slide controllable to manipulate the rear of slide. It comprises a lever for unlocking a number of slides in a locked position. The lever is implemented as an elongate steel spring. One end of lever is at the extension direction of slide, while the other end is coupled to a latch inside the slide. Hence, user may depress the outer end of lever to lift a locking pin of latch at the other end by utilizing the well known lever principle. Thus the locked slide is disengaged from lever, resulting in an unlocking of slide. However, the previous design suffered from several disadvantages. For example, user may unintentionally press the outer end of lever to activate the unlocking of slide due to the open, manual pressing design. Also, it is complex in structure. Such previous design is primarily suitable to slides installed under a load (e.g., drawer), not for slides affixed to the sides of load. Moreover, such previous design is too bulky to install in many current cabinets.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a release mechanism which is activated by pulling or pushing. A locking of a load supported by slide is made possible through a pivot member at an inner end of slide when the load is pulled to an outer end of slide. Alternatively, unlock the release mechanism for removing the load from a cabinet or pushing the load completely into the cabinet.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a simple and compact release mechanism for telescoping slide assembly.
The advantages of the present invention are realized by providing a release mechanism for telescoping slide including an outer member and an inner member. The mechanism comprises a stop member affixed to the outer member for stopping further outward movement of the inner member when reaching a predetermined use position; a connection member having an elongate shape and slidably mounted on the inner member, one access end of the connection member being open at an outer end of the slide, while the other end being formed as at least one rear cam; a pivot member including a pivot pin mounted on the inner member such that the pivot member is pivotal about the pivot pin, the pivot member being maintained either in a locked storage position or operable to pivot to an unlocked position by the activation of the rear cam of the connection member, a front surface, and a rear surface, both the front and the rear surfaces either being blocked by the stop member when the inner member moves to the use position, thus prohibiting a relative movement between the inner and the outer members, or when the pivot member is unlocked by the activated the rear cam the front and the rear surfaces being disengaged from the stop member, thus unlocking the inner member and the stop member; and an elastic member mounted on the inner member and biased to maintain the pivot member in the use, the locked storage, or the unlocked position.
Further scope of applicability of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description given hereinafter. However, it should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration only, since various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this detailed description.